4 FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE RIVIERA 



The maritime pine forms pure woods on the great masses of silic- 

 eous rock, i.e. rock with a very small proportion of lime in its com- 

 position, which form the mountain groups of the Maures and the 

 Esterel. These pine- woods are largely owned by the state and regularly 

 forested. When the trees grow close together and are of some size they 

 cast a moderately deep shade and but few shrubs can grow beneath 

 them. In more open woods there is a rich undergrowth of characteristic 

 Mediterranean evergreen shrubs such as the tree heath (Erica arborea], 

 the strawberry tree (Arbutus Unedo], and two kinds of cistus (Ctstus 

 salviifolius and C. monspeliensis). 



Alternating with the woods of maritime pine, especially in the 

 Montagnes des Maures, are extensive woods of cork-oak (Quercus 

 Suber), an evergreen oak with very thick bark composed of pure 

 cork. These cork-oak woods are very valuable, and every tree over 

 a certain age is regularly stripped of its outer bark at intervals of several 

 years. The sheets of cork thus obtained are taken to the small 

 towns, such as La Garde Freinet and Collobrieres, in the Montagnes 

 des Maures, softened by boiling, pressed flat, and then cut into bottle 

 corks. A visit to one of the small cork- making establishments in these 

 towns is very interesting, and permission to see the various processes 

 of cutting the cork for different purposes is readily granted. The 

 leaves of the cork-oak are of the same general type as those of the 

 holm-oak (Quercus Ilex) but are generally shorter and broader and 

 with sharp points or prickles on the edges. The undergrowth of the 

 cork-oak woods is much the same as that of the maritime pine- 

 woods. The cork-oak is confined to siliceous soils : it will not grow 

 on limestones. 



MAQUIS. 



If the woods of maritime pine are completely felled the shrubs of 

 the undergrowth increase in number and frequently form dense 

 thickets, three or four feet high. Such thickets are particularly well 

 developed in Corsica where they cover extensive tracts and often reach 

 a height of six feet or more. They are known to the Italians as macchie, 

 and have long been famous as the refuge of the Corsican outlaw 

 who, having killed a man in the course of a vendetta, takes to the 

 macchia and often lives there for years, defying all efforts at capture. 



Typical macchie (maquis in the French form) are developed only 

 on siliceous soil, to which some of the most characteristic shrubs 

 (e.g. Arbutus and Erica arbored), as well as the cork-oak and to a 

 large extent the maritime pine, are almost confined. Many other 

 common shrubs of the maquis, however, such as the cistuses, mainly 

 C. monspeliensis and C. salviifolius, the lentisc (Pistacia Lentiscus) and 

 the yellow flowered spiny Calycotome spinosa are found equally on 

 limestone soils. The common heather or ling (Calluna vulgaris), 

 though much more typical of the heaths and moors of north-west 

 Europe, is found abundantly in many places in the Riviera maquis. 



